Places to Go
by Monochromatic Pylon
Summary: At one o'clock in the afternoon May 1, 1945, Yuu Kanda died.


Note: Written as part of ridiculous challenge between me, nherizu, a1y_puff, and isumiilde. A little bit of liberty is taken on my part, as this is a reincarnation fic.

A gift for a1y_puff.

::

At one o'clock in the afternoon May 1, 1945, Yuu Kanda died.

Before he died, he met someone.

"I've found you," the stranger said, standing in the midst of cacophony.

Yuu felt his breathing catch. The young man, child, whoever he was, he did not look a day older than fifteen. His voice resounded clearly in Yuu's mind despite the sound of gunfire and exploding mortars around them.

The pause cost Yuu greatly. He was in the line of fire. Distracted by the stranger, he never saw the rounds that pierced his torso coming.

Hot metal cleaved through skin and right into his lung. Yuu fell to his knees, cursing even as he scanned the trees, looking among the muzzle flashes for the one that had hit him. Blood gurgled up past his lips. He gripped his rifle and returned his one last fire before everything became too dark, and his body too heavy.

He collapsed face first to the ground. From his side, he could hear Sgt. Tanabe shouting for his name.

Hearing is the last sensory-perception to fade. He knew he was going to die.

"Nononono, I've finally found you," the kid pleaded. His voice was very near that he must be speaking right beside Yuu's ear.

It was the last thing he remembered of this life.

::

Allen Walker had only one family member left. It was always Mana and him against the world. When Mana died of sickness, he was left all alone. The only option was to go into foster care system, but no family could stand him long enough. He went through family faster than a child went through clothes growing up. He was cursed, some whispered. The kinder ones said, "He's special, that kid." But all the same, he ended up at an orphanage.

Yuu met Allen Walker when he was seventeen. Allen Walker was fifteen.

::

Seventeen was a little bit old. No one looked at Kanda twice during visitation days. The couples saw his hard eyes and turned to coo over the little ones, chatting with Komui over the possibilities of adoption.

It didn't matter. One more year and he would be on his own. He could get a job then, finding a place to stay might be tough, but he would manage.

Patience and planning, he told himself, no one would take care of you. You can only rely on yourself.

::

Yuu dreamed, sometimes, flashes of gunfire and frantic shout, the rush of adrenaline that felt painfully real. He always woke with a start, the beginning of a scream died in his throat.

He told matron of it when he was younger. When he was six and trembling around the safe circle of her arms.

"Shhh," she said. "Shhh. It's just a dream, sugar."

He clung to the front of her blouse, knuckles almost white around the orange fabric, and _believed_. He hung on her words and sought comfort from her warmth.

::

When Yuu met Allen for the first time. It felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to his head. He doubled over and nausea hit him like a wave.

He took a good look again at the new kid's face. Sound of gunfire and the taste of ash in his mouth.

Yuu ran.

::

Allen found him, down by the beach. Yuu was sitting on the rocks where he had often fallen alseep with his hands around his knees when he was younger, staring into the fjord.

"Matron is looking for you," Allen said, crossing his arms. He stood behind Yuu, looking at the top of Yuu's head.

Yuu was silent.

In the evening mist, the sun was but a paler shade of itself. The tide was low and slow coming; wave after wave of water lazily impaled themselves against rocks. The air smelled of oil and seaweed.

He heard a sigh, and an impishly said, "Am I so scary that the sight of my face make you run as if the devil himself is chasing you?"

The acrid taste was still strong in his tongue. Yuu saw that lurid scar in Allen's face and it overlapped with the same scar that belonged to someone in his dreams. It had felt, now that he had calmed himself, _nostalgic_.

Yuu tilted his head up to face the kid. "I've seen you," he started, "In my dreams."

Allen smiled then. A small, twisted thing, an expression too old in the face of someone so young. And young they were, Yuu was seventeen. This kid, was, what? Fifteen? But sometimes... sometimes Yuu felt like he was one hundred and fifty, remembering the sight of men in uniforms, and unrecognizable places older than time itself.

"Yeah," Allen said, "And this time you didn't die upon seeing me. Which is an improvement, I suppose."

Yuu deciphered and processed the words. It was a long time before he moved. "Let's go back," he said. He brushed his pants as he stood. The sun had arched lower on the sky, angling just enough to shine right into their eyes.

Turning his back to the sun, Yuu met Allen's gaze squarely. Allen's face was severe, painted orange by the setting sun. His shoulder bumped Yuu's when he walked pass Yuu to jump down the low outcropping of rocks back to the path that would take them to the orphanage; a move that was too calculated to be accidental.

Yuu closed his eyes, counting to three before following Allen back.

There would be time to talk, he mused, given that he wasn't shot again in his immediate future.


End file.
